* the site has a POLL on ecological themes, maybe 3 questions
(When do you plan to buy an electric car? Within 2,3, 5 years?
Would you switch to Wind powered energy at home, even if it
increases your payments by 2, 4, 7, 10%? Do you help friends
or family to change their habits towards more eco friendly
solutions, if yes how?) After answering the questions, the
chat box changes tone completely. “You have entered the BTL
zone”.
Are you sure this wouldn't be too boring as a first contact? I'm not
sure who would want to spend time answering these questions ?
I agree with the little risk here of frightening the player with
something too serious.
But at the same time I like the idea of a few first seconds very
'normal' before something weird happens.
So why not a poll or something like that as long as we keep it very
short, what do you think ?
* It is asked to answer what BTL means : (can you guess what
BTL means?) and lists the 7 k words the user has properly used
to open the zone, as he or she was recognized by the system.
In other words, the visitor seems to have been mistakenly
granted permission to enter a secret portal where secret
underground ecological mission are taken place.
Here too, it would be good to be a bit more punchy imho... And if it's a
mistake, it makes the message more complex - already, the player will
have to understand what is this weird interface with a chat popping up
of nowhere, if he also has to understand that he was given access by
mistake...
I prefer the approach of the "chosen one" here. It is more intriguing,
it appeals to the player's ego and it gives a good excuse to guide the
surprised player a bit more. No?
It definitely needs to be punchy. That's why on my side I had suggested
the idea of a (maybe fake) attack on the organization's web site where
the player needs to help defending it, and where things happen very
suddenly and out of the blue.
But before going for the "chosen one", I'd like to explore with Alex
some other options - maybe we can come up with something more intriguing
(for me the 'chosen one' has been used so much that it's becoming quite
difficult to intrigue with that) and which still lets us guide the player ?
That is where the BTL agents come into play. BTL is not "bacon,
tomatoe, and lettuce". It means... Between The Lines . Activists
(the people who want to play the game) who enter the BTL movement of
the organization will be asked to treat information readily accessible
to all in a different way, to read everything Between The Lines, in
order to move forward with the missions.
Why not - I would need to know more to have an opinion here. One thing
in particular that I want to be careful is the accessibility of the game
mecanisms. The concept of the game being new, it needs to be very
obvious how to play it - we can't confuse the players, or ask them to be
overtly smart. A player who doesn't know what to do or doesn't
understand what is happening is usually a lost player.
I have to fully agree with this last statement - accessibility will be
one of our top priority given the originality of the game.
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